Greg was out tonight due to work so Jerad took over class. He had us do a few of the seminar techniques from butterfly guard. Mostly having to do with preventing the pass by keeping the hand posted back and the front hand on the collar. I ended up working with a new guy that didn't have a gi so I had to modify things a little bit but he could practice everything. After the movement drill we practiced collar drag followed by the loop choke and the basic collar choke.
We had enough students to do king of the mat with four different groups. To keep the theme we started from butterfly guard like we had been practicing. I was king a few times and eventually found myself sucking wind. As I have posted in the past, I've fully embraced the omaplata. I'm beginning to see opportunities for it everywhere and I'm getting a feel for how to be a little more tricky with it. It's nice to have progressed to a point where I have my "thing" that I'm particularly good at or known for.
It was my first class as a blue belt and it felt pretty good. I've been
thinking about what differences the belt can make. Of course any real
difference is superficial, the belt itself has no intrinsic reality altering power. But,
it has the potential to affect my attitude toward my training. It also
can affect how others see me. For instance, I'm planning on visiting a
school when my family and I travel to Chicago. I would feel a lot more
comfortable going in there as a really good experienced white belt as
opposed to a new blue belt. I don't want to walk into a situation where I have a target on my back and the students there feel like they need to tap out the visiting blue belt.
On the flip side I want to represent our school, Greg and Tinguinha well. I know they wouldn't have promoted me if they didn't think I deserved it. I've worked hard for it. So, my plan is to walk in with a good attitude and intentions and try to learn something and make some friends. The most important thing is that I prevent injury. I'll do my best when it's time to roll and accept each win and defeat as a learning experience.
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